Monday, June 1, 2015

Moving along

Things are moving along in so many aspects!

First, my job situation with finding a position for next school year is solved. (Yippeeeeeee!) With the help of a dear colleague and my union president, I was lucky to get support from my principal and HR during a meeting on Wednesday. After holding my breath for a day and a half, on Thursday evening, I got the phone call. I was given a full time continuing position in the same school where I've been for 8 years. This exceeded what I'd even thought was possible. I get to stay in Adult Ed, and I get to stay at my own school. I was in disbelief for the first couple of days, but now I'm just plain happy. The last 8 weeks of uncertainty really took a toll on my my mind which ended up affecting me physically. Feeling normal is so underrated.

Second, I had my trip to PCRM on Thursday. Paying another $6500 was a little nerve wracking. And that's not even the entire cost yet. Paid $500 last week, and more payments to come over the next few weeks. I described it to to my friend like this: "It's like buying a car. But after you pay, you might or might not actually get one."

After payment, I had my sonohysterogram. I was happy to see my own main doctor would be doing the procedure. At the clinic, you never know who will be doing what for you - one doctor manages my case, but anyone of the docs can do the monitoring and procedures. Turns out that my uterus looks fine with no abnormal growths inside!! Speculums are always uncomfortable, but this time it wasn't painful. When he pumped the saline solution into my uterus, I felt cramping and discomfort, but again, not a lot of pain. Another good thing is that the catheter was easily able to get to where it needed to in my uterus, which means the shape of my uterus shouldn't be an issue when it comes time to transfer an embryo or two back in there.

Next, I had my medication appointment. It was a bit overwhelming. I'll be on Marvelon for 19 days instead of 21 (yay!). I'm relieved because I've had a few days of really bad headaches that started midday and wouldn't go away til I went to bed for the night. Not much nausea anymore is a relief.

A few days later, I'll have baseline bloodwork and ultrasound and then start stimulating my ovaries. I'll be on an antagonistic protocol for my IVF to make sure my ovaries don't let those eggs go before they're ready for retrieval. During the following weeks, I'll be using Gonal-F and Marvelon to stimulate follicle growth, Orgalutran to prevent ovulation, Pregnyl to trigger ovulation at the right time and to prime the endometrium. Then I'll use Crinone suppositories for progesterone support. I'll write more about the meds once I move onto that step.

I'm excited to start stims and get closer to making our embryos, but also a bit apprehensive to be poking myself a ridiculous amount of times, also getting pokes from nurses during monitoring, and having a whole lot more of those internal ultrasounds. I've heard the suppositories are pretty gross. And then there's the side effects of all those meds. EEEEEEK!! I'm keeping my eye on the goal, though. :)

I'm off of work for two weeks now which is really nice! Also means more time for more posts! Catch ya soon!